Upper-Class People Have Trouble Recognizing the Emotions of Other People

[Loomis]

Psychologists: Upper-Class People Have Trouble Recognizing the Emotions of Other People - Neatorama

 

[Bay]

Interesting. I must be in a higher socio-economic class than I thought!

 

[Soup]

This was an interesting read. I had a giggle at the comments below the article. What I wonder too is how they defined 'upper class' for the purposes of this study & how they found enough upper class people willing to participate in the study. In America, they define & recognize social classes in a way that is different to ours up here (most resembles older French & British understanding). For example, the Kennedy's have been referred to in the USA as 'American Royalty'. We are baffled by this reference: they are rich, yes; but certainly NOT royalty or even nobility & certainly not 'upper class'. I've heard celebrities referred to as 'Hollywood Royalty' & anyone who kicks, catches or throws a ball & gets paid a lot to do so considered part of some elite. They come out during political campaigns to promote the politician du jour. Such a thing here would be unbelievable: football players are experts on football. Singers had best stick to singing.

In America, class is mostly defined by income. That would make Britney Spears more of a 1% er than Mit Romney (who, at 20 mil/yr is more of a 10% er). Did they take into consideration HOW the upper class person made their money & how they maintain it? If they made it mostly through inheriting it & basically being a professional rich dilettante, that's very different to the person who inherited some then inherited the reins of a large corporation. This last guy had better be part business genius & part diplomat. He'd also be able to read people like a so-called psychic! EVERYONE wants to de-throne him & replace him. Many of his closest confidantes are plotting his downfall.

Another thing that is different is that truly upper class (not nouveau riche arrivistes) is that they never had to live (& don't & never will) live cheek & jowl with hoards of others. Many regular social-type tasks the hoi polloi engage in regularly are anathema to an upper class person unless they're 'slumming it' to see how the other half live. Here in QC, a person making 150g/yr as a dentist is treated with more deference than some guy who makes much more by rapping or acting. We tend to treat people politely in general, but the real respect tends to go to those who are very well educated, multi-lingual & of excellent repute. Being landed nobility always ads a touch of interest to a person since we are part of the Commonwealth & many people here can rattle off the names & origins of the last 9 generations of their family. Singers & performing artists are fine & good, but the idea of considering someone like Mariah Carey to be 'upper class' would be absurd to us.

People who were born & raised in the middle, working or poor classes who become wealthy (think Oprah) do get admired & respected for their pluck & ingenuity (after all, it is seldom an easy thing to do) BUT they are NOT considered to be really upper class: they are no longer poor. For example, someone from an upper class family here would never accept the marriage of their daughter to someone like Justin Bieber no matter how much money he made last year. I know of one family who threatened to disinherit their son because of something similar.

A similar thing happened to Princess Diana after her divorce from Charles. She began dating Imran Khan of Pakistan. His family had a conniption fit: NOT because she was white or not Muslim, but because they saw her as a scandalous common adulteress (& GASP* a divorcee) & a harlot who slept with some footballer. They weren't having it. They considered her to be way beneath them.